15 comments:

I feel like I have to stick up for English teachers everywhere...we're not drawing...we're making those infernal charts all day long per Klein & Co. (Which of course, is still teacher-centered, but technically not chalk-and-talk!)

Charts, yes, but also for making the kids make pretty pictures so you have things to put on your eight million bulletin boards.

I have one full-size bulletin board outside my room, four full-size bulletin boards inside my room, four smaller bulletin boards above the full-size ones, and five long skinny bulletin boards on the doors of my closets. I think that's a total of 14 bulletin boards to be covered at all times in student work and other print matter.

If I weren't wasting time decorating my room with all kinds of crap that the kids make, I would finish my curriculum a month sooner. But G-d help you if you don't have all this crap hanging all over the place.

An English teacher had a class in my room one day and bitched to the kids about how ugly and undecorated the room was. They told her that in math, they actually do work and don't spend time coloring. Maybe it has a purpose, but I don't see it in high school.

Whooee, folks! I am an Engish teacher and have materials in my room like this--the kids use them for projects in other classes during our school-wide study time for 30 minutes before lunch. There are always kids who need markers for posters, science projects, etc. But let's not be snarky with each other- administration does enough of that to us!

I wish I knew why we're "decorating" high schools as if they're elementary schools- for that matter, I don't know why we do it in middle school, either. If it ever reaches the college level, I'm giving up.

We don't have "print-rich" classrooms, we have too many other things going on for these stupid gimmicks imposed upon the elementary and middle school teachers and kids. A "print rich" environment is very overstimulating, especially for a neurologically impaired or ADD kid who gets easily distracted. Less is more in this case.

In my school, there is one English teacher who has the kids painting with tempera paint.

During classtime. At least once every two weeks.Block schedule.

Yes, folks, for this High School teacher, paint and paper is her biggest budget item. The kids line the hall (easier to clean than her carpet), painting their interpretations of the current story.

In other classes, they ask to borrow markers to make story-boards. Homework, don't you know.

Fortunately for me, the teacher who had my classroom before me left a 20 lb. box of crayons in the closet.

Unfortunately for me, I have too many things ready to go. I don't really have the inclination to pretend to teach math but allow them to "express their understanding visually," "perform writing across the curriculum," or "learn using their own individual learning style" (which rarely involves any actual learning).